Tread Softly
by NeverMineToHold
Summary: Everything stopped with one word, a quiet 'yes' of consent, given freely - and the vessel drowned in agony. Lucifer gives Nick a moment of respite.


Title: "Tread Softly"

Status: OneShot; complete

Fandom: Supernatural

Characters: Nick, Lucifer

Disclaimer: SPN belongs to the mastermind Eric Kripke, CW and others, I'm just playing.

Rating: K

Warnings: unbeta'ed

Summary: A moment of respite for a fading vessel...

Tread Softly

Everything stopped with one word, a quiet 'yes' of consent, given freely.

'Sarah' smiled sweetly, with a hint of bitterness around the corners of her mouth. Her body exploded into a shower of blinding light, sweeping away the bedroom with white and a tone like bells and shattering glass.

Power crackled all around Nick, raising the fine hairs on his arms and sending a jolt down his spine, paralyzing him where he sat. It shifted around him, like a cold fist closing and then it flooded into him – filling every cell, like cancer.

Only darkness remained and that terrible feeling like falling, in the moment between waking and dreaming. Drifting, Nick felt tiny pieces of himself chipping away under invisible pressure and then die.

He had no longer eyes to see or ears to hear the screams he could not voice or a body to feel the sudden agony that seared through him. It consumed him, what remained of his consciousness, in this void of non-existence.

It went on and on, this pain that defied human perception and just _was_.

'Please!' Nick begged whoever might hear him, with a ragged thought or maybe less.

Suddenly, the pain eased and faded – feeling nothing was a shock that made Nick want to curl up and whimper. Cold replaced it, not the harsh bite he associated with winter, more like a cool breeze on a hot summer's day.

Then everything _dropped_ and Nick was sitting on a bank on someones porch, looking out on a garden full of flowers and, farther away, golden fields of swaying wheat. All around him pots stood, with blooming jasmine and kitchen herbs. He breathed the sweet smell in deep, relishing in the spicy note of basil, mixed with rosemary and sage – and freshly baked apple pie.

It was familiar, sitting here and Nick felt himself soaking in the calm, the warm rays of the sun – the feeling of safety known from childhood.

He listened closely, and there it was, between the chirping of birds and buzzing of bees: his grandma's rocking chair creaking in the living room and gramps football game was on, the ice-cube's in his lemonade clicked together whenever he cheered on his team but Nick couldn't hear their voices.

The pain from before was forgotten and that fact didn't change, although the devil appeared out of thin air right beside Nick, wearing his face, his body, like an evil twin.

"Where are we?" the devil asked, taking their surroundings in with open curiosity.

"You know where," Nick replied, already suspecting that this was an illusion or a dream, created based upon his memories – like Sarah had been.

"Yes," Lucifer smiled indulgently. "But tell me anyway."

"My grandparents. I spent my summer breaks here."

"Hm."

Lucifer didn't comment further, seeming content to just sit there beside Nick, watching everything with eyes too blue for a human, too piercing to see only the surface of things.

Nick hesitated, he had forgotten what had been before, but a feeling nagged at him, that he didn't want to go back. The gentle cold was soothing, though, dissolving anything unpleasant and Nick could think of no reason why he should fear the being sitting beside him.

"Why are we here?"

Lucifer turned and smiled, not bothered by the buzzing bees and silent butterflies flapping around him, as if drawn to a bright flame.

"You were fading and I have still need of you."

That should mean something to Nick, unsettle him, perhaps, but it didn't. He... wouldn't let it, he had wanted this – had asked and begged for this.

"What is this feeling?" Nick asked, waving his hand to indicate his body and the invisible breeze flowing through it.

"My grace."

"Can I stay here?" The question came out breathless.

Nick remembered that smile, had seen it on his wife's face before the white had swallowed everything and carried him away into the dark, dragging him down an empty void. He shuddered.

"I cannot shield you much longer, Nick. After all, it is my grace that burns your soul."

Lucifer said it gently and Nick remembered his warning, what it would mean for him should he give his consent to be used as a vessel.

Cool fingertips brushed over his temple, taking the rising panic away. "Let's stay a little while longer, shall we?"

end


End file.
